With eyes on its past and its future, Emporia State University enjoyed an expansive Founders’ Day celebration on Friday, Feb. 14, that acknowledged the institution’s birthday, a campus anniversary, a ribbon-cutting and the awarding of scholarships to two students.
Founders’ Day is an ESU tradition that recognizes the institution’s establishment as the Kansas State Normal School in 1863, which makes today’s university 162 years old. The first classes were held Feb. 15, 1865 – four years after Kansas’ statehood and a few months before the end of the Civil War. The institution’s name has modernized several times during its lifespan, changing to Kansas State Teachers College in 1923, Emporia Kansas State College in 1974 and ESU in 1977.
Friday’s Founders’ Day celebration also included a centennial event for Memorial Union, the campus’ cultural and social center for ESU students, faculty and staff.
When it opened 100 years ago on Founders’ Day in 1925, Memorial Union became the first student union building in the United States built west of the Mississippi River. It also was the second union building in the United States built as a memorial to student veterans. As the university’s student population and academic offerings grew during the last century, the Union underwent a series of renovations and enlargements that created the current multipurpose facility.
Today, Memorial Union features office space for a multitude of campus organizations and administrative services and houses the university bookstore, two dining venues — Hornets Nest and Hornet Express — and a Starbucks. The Union’s KSTC Ballroom and array of meeting rooms makes the ESU landmark a leading location for conferences in the Flint Hills. The Union is regularly used by local residents and businesses for weddings, family events and business meetings.
The centerpiece of Friday’s celebration was the Founders’ Day luncheon in Memorial Union’s Webb Hall, which included the announcement of this year’s recipients of the 1863 scholarship essay competition that asks applicants to describe how ESU has positively impacted their lives. The two winners shared a total of $1,863. The recipients:
- Maggie Givens from Kansas City, Missouri, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biology. Her essay, titled “How ESU Changed My Life,” brought her $1,000.
- Kesiena Lesso from Nigeria, is pursuing a double master’s degree in business and internet technology. She received $863 for her essay titled “Shoot for the Stars.”
Before the luncheon, the Kellogg Society — a giving society that honors those who have made planned gifts to ESU — held a reception at which Dr. Taylor Kriley, vice president for student success, and Jim Winslow, executive director for admissions, updated members on several new initiatives designed to recruit and retain students. Following the luncheon, attendees gathered in the Memorial Union’s east entrance for a tour that highlighted the facility’s origins and additions and ended with social time in the Center for Student Involvement lounge.
ESU wrapped up Founders’ Day events with a ribbon-cutting for the Donald Reichardt Center for Publishing and Literary Arts on the fourth floor of Plumb Hall. First opened in 2014, the Reichardt Center now features a fully functional podcasting and cinematography studio for ESU students, the campus and the community.